News Release
May 8, 2007
I Madonnari Italian Street Painting Festival slated for May 26-28
The I Madonnari street painting festival will celebrate its 21st anniversary from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on May 26, 27 and 28 at the Santa Barbara Mission, with a special ceremony to take place at noon on Monday, May 28, on the Mission steps. I Madonnari, the first festival of its kind in North America to present the performance of street painting, is presented by the Children’s Creative Project (CCP), a nonprofit arts education program of the Santa Barbara County Education Office, William J. Cirone, superintendent. The festival is sponsored in part by The Berry Man, The Dreier Group, and the Loreto Plaza Shopping Center.
In December of 2006, 10 Santa Barbara street painters, and CCP Executive Director Kathy Koury, traveled to Santa Barbara’s sister city Puerto Vallarta to introduce the art form of street painting for the first time in the city’s main plaza. The trip was co-sponsored by the Santa Barbara-Puerto Vallarta Sister City Organization and coordinated by Marti Correa de Garcia. The sister city organization’s plan to sponsor two artists from Puerto Vallarta, Santiago Polvos and Gustavo Lopez Ochoa, to participate in this year’s I Madonnari.
An expanded area for children to create street paintings will be located at the left side of the Mission inside a private parking area. A total of 600 Kids’ Squares are available and when completed will form a colorful, 40–by–60 foot patchwork of street paintings. Throughout the three-day event 2–by–2 feet Kids’ Squares can be purchased for $10, including a box of chalk.
Featured Artist Lisa Jones can be viewed at the base of the Mission steps where she will create a 12–by–16 feet street painting. Jones is a California artist and teacher. Since 2001, she has participated in street painting festivals in several locations in California; Provo, Utah; and Grazie di Curtatone, Italy. She is best known for her architectural pieces, birds, flowers, and reproductions of early Renaissance Masters works. A lifetime student of the art masters, Jones founded Masterworks Children’s Art Studio in 1996, a hands-on fine art studio for children in Marin County. Students thrive in an educationally inspiring art environment that lays the groundwork for art exploration for years to come. Jones received her BFA from the Academy of Art College in San Francisco and has been a professional illustrator and fine art painter for 20 years.
The festival will feature more than 150 street painting squares drawn on the pavement in front of the Old Mission. The squares range in size from 4–by–6 feet to 12–by–12 feet and in price from $125 to $650, each one bearing the name of its sponsor — a business, organization, or individual. As the public watches, 300 local artists transform these pavement canvases with images of elaborate compositions in unexpectedly vibrant colors. Members of the public can sign up at the festival’s information booth to receive a brochure to be a street painting sponsor or to apply to be an artist for next year.
Live music and an Italian market in keeping with the Italian theme will be featured on the Mission lawn throughout the three-day event. In the Mission Church, free concerts from 6 to 7 p.m. will feature Opera Santa Barbara on Saturday, and the Adelfos Ensemble on Sunday and Monday. According to Children’s Creative Project President Phil Morreale, this year’s market will include: lemon-rosemary roasted chicken, pasta, pizza, Italian sausage sandwiches, gelati, coffees, and other authentic Italian cuisine. Self-guided tours of the Old Mission will also be available from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. by entering the Mission’s gift shop.
History
I Madonnari is produced by the Children’s Creative Project. The organization is the first to bring this public art form to North America. After traveling to the festival in Italy, Koury created the concept for the fundraiser and produced the first-year event in 1987 when the Santa Barbara Mission was celebrating its bicentennial.
Father Virgil Cordano and the bicentennial committee members agreed to accept the street painting festival as a part of their celebration. From this time, the festival has continued to grow and now is being replicated in other cities throughout the U.S.
Since 1992, the Children’s Creative Project has produced a second festival in San Luis Obispo to raise funds for CCP arts education programs in its county. This year’s festival will take place Sept. 15–16, 2007 at the downtown San Luis Obispo Mission Plaza. Since 2002, the San Luis Obispo festival has been presented in collaboration with the American Institute of Architects California Central Coast Chapter.
Street painting, using chalk as the medium, is an Italian tradition dating to the 16th century. Called “Madonnari” because of their practice of reproducing the image of the Madonna (Our Lady), the early Italian street painters were vagabonds who would arrive in small towns and villages for Catholic religious festivals and transform the streets and public squares into temporary galleries for their ephemeral works of art. With the first rains of the season, their paintings would be gone. Today, the tradition lives on in the village of Grazie di Curtatone, Italy where the annual International Street Painting Festival is held in mid-August in the piazza of the Catholic Church.
Festival proceeds benefit the Children’s Creative Project, a non-profit arts education program of the County Education Office, William J. Cirone, superintendent. The Project sponsors fine arts programs in the schools for a total of 60,000 children.
Through the Resident Artist program, 60 artists conduct visual and performing arts workshops for more than 30,000 children. Fundraising from the I Madonnari festival helps continue the work of the Children’s Creative Project and support annual performance events among other activities.
Last April at the Arlington Theatre, 4,000 children had the rare opportunity to experience a performance by the Soweto Choir of South Africa. The performance was co-presented with the Santa Barbara Bowl Foundation’s Education Outreach, with additional funding from The Dreier Group, the Hutton Foundation, and co-sponsored by UCSB Arts & Lectures.
This year 60,000 children at 150 school sites have viewed more than 900 performances presented by 50 touring companies sponsored in the Children’s Creative Project’s Arts Catalog. To support this program, festival proceeds also provide every county public school with a $200 arts credit to subsidize in part touring company performance fees.
Festival Sponsors include:
Angeli Sponsors: The Berry Man, The Dreier Group
Bennefattori Sponsors: Loreto Plaza Shopping Center, Mission Santa Barbara, and Santa Barbara County Education Office.
Amici Sponsors: Bella Vista Designs, Inc. & Star Power, Caribbean Coffee Company, Cox Communications, Cucina Fresca Catering, El Prado Inn, Haagen Printing, KEYT3 children first, IdeaWork Studios, Koss Soft Pastels, KRUZ 97.5 & Magic 106.3, NS Ceramic, Pacific Western, Pure Water Systems, Santa Barbara Bank & Trust, Santa Barbara News-Press, Santa Barbara Travel Bureau, Smart Party Rents, Snapple Natural Beverages, UNICO Santa Barbara, Ventura Printing, and Yardi Systems.
Further information about the Children’s Creative Project, I Madonnari, artist interviews, and festival photos is available by contacting Koury at 964–4710, ext. 4411 or at www.imadonnarifestival.com.